Awesome that you got it removed! Give me tips on how you did that as I tried to remove a review from a man who was upset that GPS did not reroute him through a detour… he wanted more outlets in his room… and he was not happy that I went out for the evening with friends. Short of purchasing Google, hiring an electricion and sitting in my house 24/7 at his beck and call not sure what would have made him happy.
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I had idiots before, who mentioned in a review that i cared more about going out than being there for them. Unbelievable! We are not puppet’s on a string. Such weirdos
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Funny - my most picky guests have been Dutch! No idea why.
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Was told today by airbnb that new policies has been brought in recently so reviews cannot be removed. Before beforecould remove a review or parts of it.
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Sounds like the usual BS… “New policies…” Oh sure, it was just a CSR trying to get you off the line. Then you call tomorrow and they say, “what new policy?”
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Removing or tinkering with individual reviews must be a slippery slope for AirBnB, so I can understand their ‘new review policy reset’ attempt, as reviews must be a function of constant complaining and discontent. Who welcomes being made the judge between conflicting factions anyway.
Like everything else in life, nothing is sacrosanct and subject to change; perhaps the whole review thing should be dropped altogether, and simply use a less hyper-critical 10-star system, than the existing 5-star one, period.
One of the reasons I despise Trip Advisor (thus Flip Key), that what one lunatic has to say can stay publicly forever in the Internet at large.
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Brilliant.
Next thing you know they will be expecting free flights because the word Air is in there.
I have had 31 x 5 star reviews and then along came Christopher.
I pandered to his every need and was very responsive.
The review was a bit salty and his opening gambit was “TV, Showers and Internet don’t work”!
Factually this is grossly untrue, it was just he couldn’t get Netflix and the shower took a bit of time to warm up, normal for Thailand.
Hotels don’t even provide premium channels and yet me as a single apartment owner am expected to provide these luxury items!
Hopefully new guests will dismiss his review as just being picky and see that the rest far outweigh his.
I mean anyway who goes to the beautiful island of Samui to watch TV, no pleasing some people.
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I don’t like the 10 stars because I can’t even get five stars, let alone ten. They’ll never ever drop worded reviews, any more than EBay would drop “feedback.”
Love them or hate them, reviews are here to stay.
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If they use 10 star system, they wouldn’t insist on getting 10 stars as the new SH reference, maybe just 8. Just a thought. As to reviews, they may not drop them, but if they did, they may be doing a big favor to a lot of people.
True. No one hates the reviews more than me… But I think the thing that is so bad is how you can’t remove them and you can’t see what the other party wrote until 14 days later. I think the review process was somehow friendlier back in the earlier days of Air. The reviews were not the BIG DEAL they are now.
That said, I am pretty sure a budget property like mine would suffer under a 10-star system, whereas a unique place like yours would shine.
Air B n B = (air)Bed no Breakfast 
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I don’t think reviews are a bad idea. In fact, I think they’re a good idea. It gives everyone an incentive to behave themselves, at least to some extent, for fear of what may be publicly said about them later. Having said that, the implementation of reviews could be improved, and Airbnb could get off hosts backs about it. Who died and made them Big Brother? Things that come to mind:
a) Make reviews 10 stars. Or at any rate, a number larger than 5.
b) Make guest stars publicly visible
c) Link all reviews written by a person to that person’s profile.
d) Stop sending hosts threatening/reprimanding messages to hosts, and otherwise flagging their accounts if their score falls below whatever level Airbnb sees as suitable/acceptable
and last, but not least
e) Add a clear public description of what the different stars mean, both for guests and hosts. Right now, it’s not clear.
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^^^ Superb list. Everything is subject to improvements, as you have shown.
If I may add,
–give reviewers guidelines about how to state things diplomatically or suggest they save certain things for private feedback. Give them review parameters.
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Just received my Superhost status and had my first bad review from someone saying “looks like the cleaning lady forgot to do her job before our arrival”.
I don’t have a cleaning lady and cleaned every floor, put on new bedsheets, cleaned the whole bathroom including the shower etc. They also paid 25 euro per person for a 63 square meter apartment downtown Oslo
Left a sour taste comment, now trying to get in touch with airbnb to remove it. Sigh
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You’re wasting your time, they won’t remove it. How much they paid for the room is irrelevant. I’d contact the guest and ask why they said that. Did they see a hair on a pillowcase? An insect in a corner?
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I agree with K9. Follow up if you don’t feel the review is justified. I consistently receive high scores for cleaning, but if someone made the comment you describe - I’d have to admit there might be a few things that they noticed.
But if you know there was nothing unclean then contact the guest and ask them for details of what they are referring to.
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I meant removing my own comment really, don’t have much hope for they to remove my guest’s review… We’ll see tho
Oh, I see now what you meant. Probably best to just move on. You’ll have more good guests than bad over time.
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Hey Laurie_Ann!
Did the guest actually say all this in the review? Do you feel it is as odds with the info you’ve already provided in your listing - for example in the ‘interaction with guests’ section I guess it’s always wise to put something to the effect of - ‘I have a busy schedule but I am around the house some of the time and am always reachable by text’… As tedious as it sounds, I think Airbnb try to encourage transparency on every facet…
Having said that, it does sound as though he’s complaining about things beyond your control, so maybe you can get it removed on an ‘unrealistic expectation’ basis :-)?
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